GGS: Good Gaelic Souls A Biker Saga (G.G.S) (20 page)

Stax walked around the bed to Strangler and took his hand, "He's out baby, we should go." She said quietly. Strangler nodded and they all walked out into the hall. "You both have the picture of the U.C's that I sent to you?" He asked Ryker and Scratch, "Yes sir" They answered. "Then look at them real good and keep your eyes wide open," he ordered, "See ya in the morning." He walked down the hall towards the deputy. "Call Bob and tell him that Slacker just confirmed it was the U.C., Ya'll stay safe tonight." He said as he hit the elevator's down button.

Seeing what had been done to Slacker, had stripped away any hope that they might get though this ordeal peacefully. They had no choice but to go on the defense, this was gonna come down to a fight for life and property. Diplomacy was not an option, that was vividly apparent. Out on the sidewalk he stopped to speak, "Here's what we do. We are heading out to the Castle now. Serenity you call Griff and tell him to send a couple of the night shift workers from the compound straight to the Clubhouse with the Box Van and the Kenworth. Make sure that they are members, not laborers. Have them load up all of the provisions in the van and everything else in the rig. Once loaded, tell them to lock the doors and have everybody meet us at the Castle as quickly as they can. Tell the women to bring the children. Most of them are with Cat already, but she won't be able to transport all of them by herself." He paused a moment to think, "Oh, Samson, ya'll stop at a drug store and pick up everything we might need regarding 'first aid'. Grab a box of spiral notebooks and several packs of pens. Go to the kids aisle and buy up all of the coloring books, crayons, board games and whatever else keeps kids busy. Also, get as many packs of cards and dice that you can find. Serenity and Lee can get that stuff while you get the medical supplies. Serenity, after you call Griff, call Dimples and Tandy and ask them to bring whatever medical supplies that they can get without creating an issue. I'm thinking that they can get some samples of the good stuff that's not OTC."

Lee spoke up "What about food, water and clothing?" Stax gave her a patient smile, "We're good there baby, we have a warehouse full of everything we need, Serenity can explain on the way." Giving her a nudge, she added, "We should be able to have you dressed in your preferred fashion by dinner tomorrow." Serenity squeezed her girlfriends hand, "Sweet!" Lee replied, "A Castle! I can't wait to see this. Like, fucking 'WOW', let's get this shopping shit out of the way and get there quick." Samson chuckled, "You sound like a six year old that get's to go to an amusement park after a trip to the dentist." Serenity flinched expecting her to go off on poor Samson again, but instead, Lee just stuck her tongue out and punched him playfully in the arm.

Chapter 14

"Foresight"

Strangler and Stax arrived at the compound first, each with a heavy heart, both of them silently lamenting that the very first night in the Castle would be without Slider. Strangler was thinking of how proud Slider would be of his daughter, and Stax was thinking of how proud he would be of Strangler. Riding up to the iron gates of the couryard, they dismounted and walked inside the Gatehouse. Punching in the security code, they watched as the huge yett slowly opened inward. Remounting, they rode in quickly knowing that they had a mere thirty five seconds before it would begin to close behind them. If the gates were manned however, more time could be granted.

Once inside the Courtyard, the first thing that they noticed was that the front gardens had already been planted. One acre of each corner near the Watch Towers. If the back corners, had already been planted too, there would be at minumum of four acres of fresh vegetables to harvest soon, with plenty of room to plant more. They would have to check that later, but for now they still needed to ride up to the Castle doors and check the progress on the inside. The motorcycle parking lot had not yet been paved, so the bikes would have to go down to the parking garage under the Castle. The original four had decided early to build an underground garage in leu of a dungeon, since Florida was more often susceptable to hurricanes than Castle invasions.

They rode down into the garage and parked the bike, choosing to walk back up through the main hall instead of taking the elevator that would take them up to the kitchen. Deep in their own thoughts, neither said a word as they silently walked up the entryway to the oversized, heavy, wooden doors. Strangler reached in his pocket and pulled out a key ring. Pressing them into her hand, he softly kissed her and whispered, "The key's to the Castle, ma'lady." She smiled up at her 'Biker in black leather', and placed the key in the lock and turned. Strangler pushed the big door open, lifted her in his arms and carried her inside.

"Wow," whispered Stax, after he had placed her back on her feet, "I thought Da said the weren't going to add the dungeon." The massive doors at the end of the long hallway were closed, as were the double doors to the front parlors on either side. Although the sun was still bright outside, not a single ray could penetrate the thick block walls of the Castle. Strangler had to leave the doors open behind him until his eyes adjusted and he could find the light switch. Only three of the twelve electric torches came on, just enough light to break the darkness. He made a mental note to have more light bulbs installed tonight, and closing the front door, they walked forward towards the second set of doors. It was a little eerie and rather unnerving. Stax had the feeling that she was walking down the corridor of a strange dream. The echoes from their footsteps added to the feeling that she was entombed underground. It was a bit too surreal and they walked quickly towards the inner doors.

The 'Main Hall' or Bar Room as they called it, was beginning to take shape. They stood there facing the back wall of this huge main room. On either side of the back wall, there was an arched hallway leading further into the Castle. Along the backwall, in between the hallways, was the main bar, but the 'elbow bars' had not yet been installed.  There were no furnishings, no bar stools, no tables, chairs or games. The bullet proof windows that Slider had insisted on installing on the main floor, still had no drapes or covering. The main stage had been framed, but was far from finished. It had been well over three months since either of them had been out to the property, and although the Castle was far from ready, the fundamentals had been achieved. Stax tried to imagine how it would all look once the bars and stage were completed. Once the walls were painted, the tables in place and the huge drapes and Gaelic tapestries added, the artwork would be hung and that would tie it all together. Years ago, Slider had commissioned a local artist to recreate several famous biker scenes on giant canvases, using the likeness of the original four club members. It broke her heart to know that he would never see them hanging in his beloved Castle.

Strangler on the other hand, was concerned about immediate needs. He stopped her from going any further to look around by saying, "Before we go through the main floor, we need to go upstairs and check on the status of the bedrooms. It's possible that we are
all
gonna to be here for a minute, and we need to make a list of what we need to bring in from the warehouse first. Bringing the the big stuff up is gonna be a back-breaking bitch." Not wanting to think of all of the work ahead of them, they walked into the kitchen and stepped into the elevator. It was a smooth ride and they were on the second floor in no time.

When the elevator door opened, they stepped out into the upstairs kitchen. Making their way through the smaller staging kitchen and down the hall, they walked into the Ballroom. They were amazed to find that this bar was also in place, and up here at least, the stage construction had been completed. Once they added the lights, liquor and music equipment, they would be in business. The most welcome suprise however, was that it looked like someone had bought out a mattress warehouse. Leaning against the walls was a semi-load or more, of queen size mattress sets. There should be enough there to put two in each of the fifteen upstairs bedrooms. "Sweet!" exclaimed Strangler, "We're good to go. Looks like someone found a deal that they couldn't resist. I sure pity the poor soul's that had to bring all this shit up here." He looked over at Stax and smiled, "One less thing." He said happily. "You gotta love the way them ol' Gaels work."

Walking through the archway that led into the hall, they began their inspections of the sleeping quarters. Most of them were empty, but carpeting had recently been installed in all of them. The bathrooms were all in working order, each with a shower, toilet and sink. All but one that is, Stax's room had a Jaccuzzi and Slider had made sure that all of her furniture was already in place and ready for her, including a new Kingsize bed that he had spent countless hours creating for her. They found that three of the bedrooms were being used as a staging area for bed tables, dressers and bed rails. Stax recognized several pieces from previous yard sales and donations. "Da must have had all of this brought up from the warehouse before -" she stopped, trying to swallow the lump that was rising in her throat.

"Damn," replied Strangler, "He was certainly thinking ahead. With everything that he was learning, he wasn't going to be caught wanting. I for one am respectfully impressed and grateful for his foresight." Stax got her feelings under control and added, "Da always told me, after what he saw happen to innocent families during the war, he would spend his life protecting me and his family. He wouldn't say what he saw, but he said if it ever came to our shores, he would be ready. It looks like his preparations are about to pay off." Strangler put his arm around her and for a quick minute, allowed himself to get lost in those big beautiful eyes. "Let's hope this is just gonna be a dry-run." He whispered, as he leaned down further to kiss her quivering lips. "I've missed you Angel." he told her sofly, "Really hard." Straightening his back, his took her hand and led her to the next room.

Again, they were suprised  to see that it too was being used as storage. This time, on one side of the room ther were pallets, piled high with stacks of sheets and pillow cases, comforters and blankets. All of which had been washed, folded and vacuum packed. There were also pallets of boxes, each of these containing brand new king size pillows. On the other side of the room, was rack upon rack of used clothing, already cleaned and on hangers. There were jeans, shirts, shorts, night clothes, sweaters, coats, camoflauge and even a rack of leather's. Several racks of tennis shoes and boots were lined against the wall. In the corner were several hatracks with caps and sunhats. In the middle of the room there were about 10 boxes that contained brand new packages of various types and sizes of underwear, and she even spotted a couple of cases of new bandanas.

In the next room they discovered large boxes of soaps, shampoos, conditioners, razors, toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs, hair brushes, deodorants and feminine products. Also in this room were several industrial vacuum cleaners, mops, buckets, brooms and dusters.

"In-fucking-credible!" announced Strangler, "Forget impressed, I'm overwhelmed." Shaking his head in amazement he continued, "Just fuck me running. We knew that most of this was already in the warehouse, but I had no idea that they had brought it all into the Clubhouse already. This is such a time saver. Baby, let's go down and check the kitchen, that will be our next concern."

Taking the elevator back down, they stepped into the kitchen directly behind the bar. All of the commercial appliances had recently been installed. There were several freezers, refridgerators,  cookstoves and grills. It looked like the kitchen of a large four-star resturaunt, but bigger. Huge pots and pans were stacked on the work tables, along with  boxes of dishes.

In the pantry they found the shelves were stocked with jars of canned fruits and vegetables, 50 lb. bags of flour, sugar, rice, beans, potatoes and onions. There were even more of these in the second pantry, along with cases and cases of canned milk, crackers, peanut butter and preserves. There was commercial size cannisters of spices, condiments, yeast and so much more. From the smokehouse, they had brought in hams, jerky and sides of beef. The refridgerator was packed with flats fresh eggs. Butter and wheels of cheese were also already stocked. They found the freezer's loaded with bacon, freshly ground sausage, ground beef, lamb and pork. In the walk in there was boxes of pre-sliced deli meat and cheese platters, hot dog's, brats, italian sausage, hamburger patties and so much more. Cases of bottled water, rehydration drinks, soda's and boxed tea bags were stacked up in row's on the backwall of the kitchen.

Back in the main room, they checked the bar. It was fully stocked, all of the overflow cabinets were packed full of liqour and set-ups. Behind the bar, the back counter was covered with boxes of candles, lanterns, wicks, oil, flashlights and batteries. There were boxes of styrofoam plates, plasticware and paper products. Thinking that they had seen it all, they opened the double doors to the huge parlor on the right of the main room. It contained cases of toilet paper, diapers, cribs and playpens. Plastic storage container's marked 'Toys', 'Crafts', 'School supplies' and such were stacked next to rows of metal folding chairs and long collapsable banquet tables. There was a stack of cots and a large kingsize bed already set up in the far corner, and a shitload of office partitions leaning agains the wall. "Griff," Stax said, "He's gonna make this area their house, so the kids feel more comfortable. How cool is that?"

Behind the doors of the parlor on the left, it looked liked the barracks of a military training center. There were ten double racks for sleeping, already set up and complete with footlockers. There were also four hospital beds along the left wall towards the back. Also stored in this room were sealed cases of cigarette cartons, tobacco, pipes, matches, lighters and rolling papers. In the back right corner of the room was a makeshift, L-shaped desk. Blocks had been used for legs and plywood for the desk top itself. Sitting on the desk were scanner's, C.B's and ham radios. Stax opened one of the footlockers and showed Strangler what she found. "Mac-10's, Bullet Proof Vest, Walkie-Talkies, Fatigues, Boots and MRE's," he exclaimed, shaking his head in wonder. "I'll be damned."